How Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Life Was Forever Changed By World War Two

739 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: World War II effects on America

How many people in the United States actually know what happened to the Japanese Americans during World War II? Do most of us in this country honestly know the cruel, unfair hardships they were put through? On December 7th 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. This was the reason America supposedly could not trust those from Japan who immigrated here. Because of this distrust, our government put them into internment camps. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was one of these people put into an internment camp, a point in her history that changed her life forever. Jeanne's immediate family before the war consisted of twelve members. She had a mother, father, and nine older siblings, as well as her mother's mother who lived with them. The rest of the family on her father’s side lived in Japan. However, the relatives on her mother’s side lived in a different part of the U.S. Her father’s family is from a long line of samurais, which are just below the ranking level of nobility and above farmers. Farmers, in turn, are higher on the ranking scale than merchants in old Japan. Around the 1800’s the country began to no longer need the samurai, yet her father’s family still owned a vast amount of land and were very rich. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Jeanne’s father worked as a fisherman, her mother at a cannery. They lived in Ocean Park, which is near Santa Monica in California. Soon after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the government made the decision to place Japanese-Americans in internment camps. When Jeanne and her family were shipped to Manzanar, they all remained together, except her father who was taken for questioning. After a year he was reunited with them at the camp. On the first night that they had arrived at there, the cam... ... middle of paper ... ...itizens would know the truth about what happened to the Japanese in America. Jeanne told people in an interview, that in her book “It tells a story about America. For the first time in the history of our country, all three branches of the government violated the constitution. They rounded up a group of people because of their race and because of the potential to be dangerous. They rounded them up and imprisoned them in these camps from one to three years, and no one knew about it. This was a great violation of democratic values of this country.’’ Works Cited Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar New York: bantam book, 1973. Print “Full Interview with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.’’ Cal Humanities: A State of Open Mind.2014. web. Feb.19th, 2014. Internet “Farewell to Manzanar.” Precedan. Com. 2014. Web. Feb. 19,2014. internet

Show More
Related

  • You People Did This Essay

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    World War Two was one of the biggest militarized conflicts in all of human history, and like all wars it lead to the marginalization of many people around the world. We as Americans saw ourselves as the great righteous liberators of those interned into concentration camps under Nazi Germany, while in reality our horse was not that much higher than theirs. The fear and hysteria following the attacks on pearl harbour lead to the forced removal and internment of over 110,000 Japanese American residents (Benson). This internment indiscriminately applied to both first and second generation Japanese Americans, Similarly to those interned in concentration camps, they were forced to either sell, store or leave behind their belongings. Reshma Memon Yaqub in her article “You People Did This,” describes a similar story to that of the Japanese Americans. The counterpart event of pearl harbour being the attacks on the world trade

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment In Canada Essay

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    It can be said that the poor conditions and living styles of Japanese-Canadians were unsafe and unadaptable. A 22-year-old named Tom Tamagi proclaims, “I was a 22 year old Japanese Canadian, a prisoner of my own country of birth. We were confined inside a high wire fence of Hastings park just like caged animals”. Specifically, it is shown that many internees were just thrown into livestock buildings and expected to farm and produce resources, where they were also treated like animals as they were not given any attention and any assistance. This lack of personal care for Japanese-Canadians eventually led them to develop countless diseases, including pneumonia and skin infections, which impacted numerous families as many died. This atrocity of living through poor conditions had a worsening effect on Japanese-Canadians internees physical state. June Fujiyama, an ex-internee, recalled, “[w]hat a shock [it was] to arrive and find the Park surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence and guarded by soldiers who were dressed in khaki and carrying guns. I was incredulous. ‘Those guns are for us?’” To illustrate, Jane is subjected to a view of confinement as she is surprised that such protection and safety precautions are needed for her people, which demonstrates that her race is that much of a potential risk to others, and have to be under control and looked after at all times. Also, the

    Read More

  • Japanese Alien and Japanese-American Poets In U. S. Relocation Camps

    4717 Words  | 10 Pages

    As Inada points out with his analogy to a constellation, the United States government had constructed many camps and scattered them all over the country. In other words, the internment of Japanese-Americans was not merely a blip in American history; it was instead a catastrophic and appalling forced remov...

    Read More

  • Farewell to Manzanar

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities.

    Read More

  • Farewell to Manzanar

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her father was a fisherman in Long Beach with her two oldest brothers working as his crew on his prideful fishing boat. The family lived in Ocean Park, a small town in Santa Monica, where they were the only Japanese family in their neighborhood. Her father liked it that way because the label of being Japanese or even Asian was trite. When the news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Jeanne and most of her family found themselves asking the same question: " What is Pearl Harbor?" (Houston 6) When the news came, her father seemed to be the only one to understand. He proceeded to burn his country's flag that he brought to the US with him wh...

    Read More

  • Usama, The Middle East, and The Crusades

    1516 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.

    Read More

  • How Is Japanese Internment Justified

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    This caused the Japanese to become a scapegoat of America’s fear and anger. The Issei and Nisei who once moved to this country to find new opportunities and jobs were now stripped of their homes and businesses and were forced to live in poor living conditions (DISCovering). Although many Americans believed that Japanese American internment was justified because it was used to protect us from attacks by Japanese Americans, it was very unlikely that they were ever going to attack us in the first place. For example, in Dr. Seuss’ political cartoon, many Japanese Americans are lined up to get TNT and waiting for a signal from Japan to attack (Seuss).

    Read More

  • Internment of Japanese Canadians

    1973 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Farewell To Manzanar Analysis

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, tells her family’s true story of how they struggled to not only survive, but thrive in forced detention during World War II. She was seven years old when the war started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Her life dramatically changed when her and her family were taken from their home and sent to live at the Manzanar internment camp. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, they had to adjust to their new life living behind barbed wire. Obviously, as a young child, Jeanne did not fully understand why they had to move, and she was not fully aware of the events happening outside the camp. However, in the beginning, every Japanese American had questions. They wondered why they had to leave. Now, as an adult, she recounts the three years she spent at Manzanar and shares how her family attempted to survive. The conflict of ethnicities affected Jeanne and her family’s life to a great extent.

    Read More

  • Japanese Internment After Pearl Harbor

    2439 Words  | 5 Pages

    23 .Roger Daniel, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in the World War II 1993, Hill and Yang.

    Read More

  • What's in a Name?

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Daniels, Roger. Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. (New York: HILL and WANG, 1993)

    Read More

  • Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Farewell to Manzanar

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Japanese American, and James D. Houston, describes about the experience of being sent to an internment camp during World War II. The evacuation of Japanese Americans started after President Roosevelt had signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, the Wakatsuki was sent on a bus to Manzanar, California. There, they were placed in an internment camp, many miles from their home with only what they could carry. The lives of the Japanese Americans in the internment was a struggle. But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa’s self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status.

    Read More

  • Freedom and Human Rights: When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ile the war is still happening. The lack of freedom and human rights can cause people to have a sad life. Their identity, personality, and dignity will be vanish after their freedom and human right are taking away. This is a action which shows America’s inhuman ideas. It is understandable that war prison should be put into jail and take away their rights; but Japanese-American citizen have nothing to do with the war. American chooses to treat Jap-American citizen as a war prisoner, then it is not fair to them because they have rights to stay whatever side they choose and they can choose what ever region they want. Therefore, Otasuka’s novel telling the readers a lesson of how important it is for people to have their rights and freedom with them. People should cherish these two things; if not, they will going to regret it.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston´s Farewell to Manzanar

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is a riveting about a women who endured three years of social hardships in camp Manzanar. Jeanne Wakatsuki was born on September 26, 1934, in Inglewood, California, to George Ko Wakatsuki and Riku Sugai Wakatsuki. She spent her early childhood in Ocean Park, California, where her father was a fisherman. On December 7, 1941 Jeanne and her family say good bye to her Papa and her brothers as they take off on their sardine boat. The boat promptly returned and a “Fellow from the cannery came running down to the wharf shouting that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor” (Wakatsuki, 6). That very night Papa went home and burned anything that could trace them back to their Japanese origins paper, documents, and even the flag that he had brought back with him from Hiroshima. Even though Papa tried hard to hide his connections with his Japanese heritage the FBI still arrested him but he didn’t struggle as they took him away he was a man of “tremendous dignity” (Wakatsuki, 8) and instead he led them.

    Read More

  • Japanese American Are A Minority Group

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout Americas history, there has been prejudice, discrimination, and segregation. The prejudice, discrimination, and segregation of African-Americans and Native Americans are well known and often portrayed in movies. The group that is less exposed in movies is the prejudice, discrimination, and segregation of Asians. Mine is about a minority group that has seen prejudice, discrimination, and segregation that is now recognized universally deplorable the Japanese American. The incarceration of the Japanese by the United States during World War II is now considered unjust. After “Executive Order 9066 the army moved 40,000 long-term immigrants, and 77,000 United States citizens of Japanese descent.” (Miksch and Ghere, 2004 p. 212) Although, at that time “Most people thought internment of enemy aliens was a normal precaution in wartime situations.” (Miksch and Ghere, 2004 p. 211) “The practice of internment of enemy aliens is normal practice in Canada, Australia, United States, and European countries.” (Miksch and...

    Read More

More about How Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Life Was Forever Changed By World War Two

Open Document